(Well, actually, I've been toting the genius on the internet since way back in the day. Anyone remember that email "newsletter" I used to send out with cool sites I'd found? Ah. Good times, good times...)
Specifically, I'm talking about the writing talent going unpublished (in a traditional sense) and largely unrecognized. There are some amazingly talented writers out there, just blogging away. (Check out Allison's blog for some of her reccomendations in the blog universe.) When I got into the fan fiction thing a few months back, I originally thought, "Wow! This will be fun to read other people's silly HP stories!" How wrong I was. I had no idea that I would find such superb art and literary craftsmanship disguised as fan fiction!
Of course, if you've been reading this blog carefully, you will have heard me mention Sam as an excellent example of this. Sam is amazing. Sam is my new personal hero. He writes the 100% single best fan fiction series that exists, plus tons of short stories, plus four original novels (in various stages of revision), plus a fifth that is in the process of being written, all available free on his web site and all every bit as good as the novels you would pick up from a "new releases" table at the bookstore. I especially reccommend Rebuilding Ozymandias, which is about an American architect and his cleptomaniac assistant, their rich French playboy employer, and the Hotel L et L and its ghosts which bring them all together. Lacy gives it an A++ on her genius scale -- and it has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with Harry Potter, just for the record. ;c)
But he is not the only genius. My darling beta reader Kris is also a genius in her own right! She is a vet student and does all kinds of horribly tricky things like biochemistry and so on in addition to writing her beautifully lyrical fan fiction. Hers is prose that reads like poetry. Some of her descriptions of setting and place will absolutely take your breath away; I know, because I have been priveledged enough to take part in the revisions process with her by betaing her work. Her newest, Paper Wings, is an alternate universe HP fan fiction:
What if Sirius Black sent a final message from Azkaban? Enter the home of the last Marauder in the days following Voldemort's downfall. Lost and alone, Remus asks a question of the void, a question whose answer will send him around the world. Meeting puppies, Kneazles, dementors, and nomads, Remus learns more about himself and his friends than he ever thought possible. Learn the secrets of the Marauder's map and the world's best chocolate, how various Death Eaters occupied themselves after the fall of their lord, and why you should never leave Remembralls lying around.
And these are only two of the dozens of talented writers I have discovered thus far!! So, in the spirit of all this genius that I find myself surrounded by, I've started collecting my "favorite lines of the day" from various sources. If you appreciate a well-crafted turn of phrase as much as I do, I think you'll be blown away by what I've culled from the net.
And because art -- especially literature -- does not exisist in a vaccume, I've also started doing "daily drabbles" as you may have noticed. In fan fiction jargon, a drabble is a 100 word short story or scene. I'm not too picky about making sure that my daily drabbles are 100 words, but they are short snippets of what I have managed to churn out each day; my favorite few lines from my daily pounding of the keys. These aren't meant to be stories in themselves, merely glimpses of my daily literary forays.
I hope you will enjoy reading these gems I pluck from the electronic firmament, and I encourage you to follow the links I provide to the stories themselves and bask in the genius. If anyone out there is an HP fan fiction fan, you can also look at my livejournal, Lux Aeterna, for more HP-centric suggestions. =)
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